Whoopi Goldberg was so incensed during a debate on her US TV show The View that she walked off the set.

The Sister Act star was taking part in a discussion about the proposed Islamic centre near the site of the September 11 attacks. In reaction to Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's comment that "Muslims killed us on 9/11" she screamed: "Oh my God, that is such b******t!"

She then left the stage with fellow co-host Joy Behar. They returned after an O'Reilly apology.

The fireworks came amid a heated argument on the issue. O'Reilly had said: "Listen to me because you'll learn something." "Pinhead!" retorted Joy.

After the offending comment from O'Reilly, who was on the popular daytime talk show to promote his book Pinheads And Patriots: Where You Stand In The Age of Obama, Joy rose from her seat and said: "I don't want to sit here. I don't. I'm outraged by that statement." She walked off the set, followed by Whoopi.

The show's creator, Barbara Walters, immediately said her colleagues were wrong to walk off. "We should be able to have discussions without washing our hands and screaming and walking offstage," she said.

But she also scolded O'Reilly, saying that it was extremists who committed the terrorist act. "You cannot take a whole religion and demean them," she said.

"I'm not demeaning anybody," O'Reilly said.

"Yes," Walters replied. "You are."

After some more back-and-forth, O'Reilly said that "if anybody felt that I was demeaning all Muslims, I apologise". Whoopi and Joy returned, with Joy saying: "We're back now because you apologised."